BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday honored anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized since the weekend to recover from a lung infection.

Zuma unveiled a statue of Mandela in the city of Bloemfontein, also called Mangaung, which next week hosts the ruling African National Congress party’s convention.

“We will be able to yet again pay tribute to a man who became a symbol of both our struggle for freedom and the free and democratic South Africa,” Zuma said.

Mandela, 94, was admitted on Saturday to 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, the capital....